Adoption Update #5 - Video update condensed.

Hi All, so sorry this is so long overdue. Our facebook live video lasted way too long. We planned to have no longer than a 2-5 min video; it got away from us at 26 min long! O.O Here I will try my best to consolidate the info mentioned if you do not wish to spend 26 min of your life of us babbling. Here is the video first of all!

https://youtu.be/dL24v0V-H3M

Adopting can take 20k-50k depending on each birthmom, the most common question we've been asked is: "Why so much?". Here is the brief overveiw:

- Birthmother expenses: Most are homeless, incarcerated, or just don't have a good living situation so we have to pay for them to have stable housing. Clothing and food are the other big ones. Thankfully, all medical expenses are covered 99% of the time by the state offered insurance. ALL MONEY is funneled through the agency she (and we) are working with and they take her shopping, directly pay for her rent, etc. No money is given to her directly to protect her and us.

- Agency fees, attorney fees, legal fees.

None of these fees include what has been paid out already (i.e. home study, adoption consultants) or other expenses to come: travel expenses (i.e. hotel for us when baby is born up to 1-2 weeks, food for us during that time, flight to and from, rental car)

What we are doing to avoid major debt!

I am taking donations almost anything in new/like new condition to resell online and all profits go towards our fund! We are GREATLY in need of donations in this area so please contact me if you have anything. (basically most brands just not stuff you'd buy at walmart regarding clothes.) Household items, especially kitchen items I've noticed move pretty fast since I can price donations to move fast. To keep this short just contact me concerning this.

Grants! Grants! Grants! We've only be able to apply to two so far, some want us to have an agency selected before continuing forward. Otherwise, it is just finding the time to enter everything they want paperwork wise because you might drown with how much paperwork there is! HOWEVER, one has been approved (YAY!) and that is a matching grant of 2k! This means whenever someone gives to this fund they will match that amount given. There is 2 different ways: Gobena Coffee (we've had some- yum!) and Lifesong for Orphans.

Another way is fundraising, we have heard this has cause upset with some that we also sent our mission trip letter to as well last year. We KNOW a lot of you are on a fixed or a sole-income family like us. We also make it very clear in our letter and prayer photo that we first of all want your prayers. They are more precious than any dollar amount. God is bigger than our lack of money, and we trust him with that and know that pray is the strongest weapon we have. We don't know where the money will come from but we know He will provide. :) This is VERY out of our comfort zone to ask for money so it is not without pause that we ask for money. However, this journey is more important than our comfort and unintentionally stepping on toes.

We are VERY excited about our puzzle fundraiser too, make any size donation and we will write your name on the back and once complete it will pieced together, framed and placed on a wall in a place of honor and we can show our child how many people loved him/her as they grow. Here is the puzzle <3 p="">

Beautiful, isn't it? Contact Josh or I on how to give money towards this puzzle.
The complete fundraising list is kept up to date at our facebook post here

Okay, to the fun stuff! We've gone a little bananas as far as the clothes go because we don't know the gender but they won't go to waste either way. ;)

For those of you that watched the video and saw the boy quilt, this is the girl quilt I didn't have upstairs in the baby room. 

This is a 3 in 1 Amish highchair, for this we wanted make a sound investment because highchairs don't really last beyond one child. 

I forgot to mention in the video I have the wooden piece this go on top of all we are missing is a dresser! 

Bassinet that will move downstairs when baby comes, we are still on the hunt for the crib we want. 

Lastly, we thank you again for your prayers! If you desire to have a pray photo and letter we already have some ready to place in the mail just PM your address and they will be on there way. If you already received one, thank you again for praying. This is the photo included: 

I will close here. *whew* Still a LONG post even condensing the video! I promise we will keep up with our updates from now on so they are NEVER so long again. 

Blessings!

Having Hope

This past year has been the busiest I can think of to date for us and we are just getting started. Last year brought our first home selling, an emotional and difficult task. Josh and I both knew it was time but it held many wonderful memories. We got married in that backyard, we lived with my family for over four years, celebrated many birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, new pets, remodeling....and so much more! It was a lot of growth. It also held a lot of painful ones for Josh and me, I cried myself to sleep more nights than I could count, watched more TV just to escape, we lost a lot of joy in seeing and loving everything about babies and children, fought depression, went through fertility testing and treatments, surgery just to be told there was nothing more they could do besides IVF. 

        But, through all this, there is healing, joy, and comfort. I don't know if we will ever experience the joy of welcoming our own biological child, but that pain is much dimmer now. I cry out to you all who are still in the middle of this numbing pain that no one can relate to around you, except those that have been there themselves. We may never have experienced the loss of a child, but from the bottom of our hearts, we ache for you. You are not alone. God has not left your side dear ones, even when the pain screams highly than we can hear. When we cry so hard we cannot see through the tears. He is there. We might never understand fully "why" but we can take comfort that this is not in vain. God allows but He does not ignore. He hears you. The path may take us differently than we ever expected and have different results, but you have a story He wants you to have!

Now, we have moved again. To the home, we WILL bring our first child home too. That is a healing statement I have to tell you, at least for me. Our plans to adopt have started healing the deep scars in me. No longer are they always bleeding but they have slowed and scabbed over. I will not lie and say it is easy now. Far from it, my heart still catches at times when I see any child just walking with his Dad and think of my husband who has no child's hand to hold, I still hold my breath for a moment when someone learns of our infertility- bracing for what they will say next with that well-meaning comment. I have to swallow crying with any pregnancy announcement, no matter how overjoyed I am for that family. However, God has been healing us, growing in us, drawing us closer together as a couple when it could have broken us. Have hope dear reader, no matter where you are on your journey. I promise God can and will heal all wounds.

For the first time in years, I am excited about the new year and the things to come. We both are. We have a renewed hope. Praying your new year is happy and blessed dear friends and readers.

Megan